A couple weeks ago, we told you about Samsung suing to stop the sale of the Apple iPhone 4S in France and Italy and we predicted there would be more suits to come. Sure enough, now similar motions have been fired seeking to stop the sale of 4S in Australia and Japan. Not asking for credit for being brilliant or clairvoyant here, just for grasping the obvious. It’s part of the ongoing war that was initiated when Apple blocked the sale of the iPad-esque Galaxy Tab in Germany, charging that it was just a ripoff of the iPad. That was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in this standoff. Apple won a similar blockade against Galaxy Tab in Australia. Expect more escalation.
Also, Apple sold 4 million units of the 4S in the opening weekend, a new record by a mile.
Despite the impressive launch sales, it’s worth comparing to the first weekend for the iPhone 4 to give some context. That device was only available in five countries at launch, excluding Canada and Australia. Server problems caused hassles for some would-be customers, especially on AT&T. And let’s not forget that Apple didn’t have a white version of the iPhone 4 available, which by many accounts appears to be far more popular than expected. We should also note that with the longer than usual upgrade cycle, far more users were “upgrade eligible” this time around. Given all the issues, it’s somewhat surprising Apple sold 1.7 million iPhone 4 units in just three days.
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